William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)

I thank all the witnesses who have come in. I am delighted to be here. One good thing that has happened, on which I have campaigned for more than 40 years as a member of Laois County Council, is that the control of dogs be handed over to the Department of agriculture. That has happened now for the first time, although it should have always been the case. It should have been the case for horses too, but I will leave that matter aside. We have teeth now. We can bring in the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon. We can get on to the Department of agriculture to establish new rules for all dog owners and get a path forward.

I maintain that no dog should be around without being microchipped. Every person has a responsibility in that regard. The Department of agriculture will have a dedicated budget, whereas the local authorities were operating on a shoestring. From that point of view, dog wardens will have all the equipment to just stop a person and seize a dog. All the wardens must do is run the yoke along the dog and if it does not give a whistle, that means there is no tag and the dog must be taken away. People will know that quickly.

On dog worrying, my view is that no dog should be let off a lead. That has to be provided for in legislation. We can do that in this country. We do not have to go to Europe; we can have our own set of rules. No one is allowed should be let a dog off a lead. There is a difference where farmers give permission for gun clubs to go in to shoot. You will see that up at farms throughout the country. That is a completely different thing. Those people have permission. There are other places where no one is allowed. You will see that in places as well. No matter what happens, no dog should be allowed off a lead. It does not matter whether someone is coming down from Dublin for a week out or coming from wherever, no dog should be allowed off a lead. If we had that in legislation, at least we would be moving forward in some way.

While I agree with everything Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice said, there is one thing I wish to say. I live right in the middle of a town. I certainly would not encourage anyone to go out to confront three or four people in their field this evening with four or five dogs to tell them to get out or to pull out a gun and shoot them. Who would come out the worst of that? It would be the farmer. We saw what happened in Dublin when that poor man went over and asked the people to keep their dogs on a leash and to go out to the ditch because he had sheep next door. Look what happened to him. We have a lot of work to do to ensure people respect the person who confronts them as the owner of the land. I am serious in that regard. I am telling the committee here and now that I would not encourage any farmer to confront these people. There is a difference in the people out there. That was alluded to today. There is the person who lets their dog off and the dog gets away from them and runs at the sheep. A dog will run at anything that moves, from the smallest to the biggest dog.

We have an awful lot of work to do. We have it now in the right place in the Department of agriculture. Deputy Fitzmaurice is here a lot longer here than I am. I promise that real changes will now be seen because we are in a position to do so. We have this matter under one umbrella, namely, the Department of agriculture. We were all members of a local authority at some stage. The local authorities all had different rules and regulations. Now, however, we will have one guiding path forward for dealing with this. We have a lot of work to do before people will be able to go out to ensure no one is on their land with dogs. That is all I can say.

This matter is so urgent that we should be addressing it with the same urgency as we address TB. I honestly believe that. Farmers have left the industry because of dogs, which is natural enough. What farmer tonight could go to bed with 100 sheep lambing out in the field without the worry of it? You could do not do it because there are too many dogs running wild. We politicians are always on the roads late at night coming and going from meetings. How many times do we pass two dogs going at it on a rural road? Every time I go to rural meetings at night, I will not come home without passing and seeing a dog.